8.00 (3.00) We're going to leave it there for the night and let the last word go not to a historian or a pundit but to Kennedy himself. Here's the first inaugural and his challenge to the American people to answer the call to service.

7.55 (1.55) Let's skip ahead a few hours to Air Force One landing back at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, carrying Lyndon Johnson, the new president, Jackie Kennedy and the body of her husband. Johnson makes a brief, touching speech on the tarmac. "I will do my best, that is all I can do," he says. "I ask for your help and God's."

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7.50 (1.50) 12 minutes after Cronkite's announcement, Oswald is cornered in a Texas cinema. He briefly resists but as they overpower shouts out: "Well, it's all over now!"

7.45 (1.45) One of the most astonishing reactions recorded was this Boston Symphony audience, being told the news by conductor Erich Leinsdorf.

7.38 (1.38) And then the moment of awful confirmation. Walter Cronkite, the most trusted news man in America, announces Kennedy's death:

7.20 (1.20) As the city hunts the gunman, Dallas Police officer JD Tippit is driving slowly down East 10th St when he sees a man matching the shooter's description. He pulls alongside Oswald and for a moment they exchange words before the assassin pulls out a handgun and shoots him dead.

6.57 (12.57) As Oswald is making his way back to nearby the boarding house where he lived, the nation remained waited for news in stunned horror. This came from AP at 12.57:

DALLAS, TEX., NOV. 22 (AP) — REP. ALBERT THOMAS, D-TEX., SAID TODAY HE WAS INFORMED PRESIDENT KENNEDY ... WAS STILL ALIVE BUT WAS "IN VERY CRITICAL" CONDITION.

6.48 (12.48) The motorcade rushes on to Parkland Hospital, with Jackie Kennedy frantically crawling over the back of the convertible, away from her slumped husband.

In the minutes that follow law enforcement is moving rapidly, with FBI director J Edgar Hoover on the phone to Bobby Kennedy, the president's brother and his attorney general. Meanwhile Dallas Police are beginning to circulate first description of the suspect.

6.40 (12.40) Ten minutes after the shots are fired comes the first official AP flash:

DALLAS, NOV. 22 (AP) — PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS SHOT TODAY JUST AS HIS MOTORCADE LEFT DOWNTOWN DALLAS. MRS. KENNEDY JUMPED UP AND GRABBED MR. KENNEDY. SHE CRIED, "OH, NO!" THE MOTORCADE SPED ON.

A moment later Walter Cronkite interrupts As the World Turns on CBS to announce that Kennedy was wounded. The news spreads like wildfire.

6.38 (12.38) The shooting happens in broad daylight before watching cameras and hundreds of spectators. Among them is Abraham Zapruder, who films the moment on an 8mm camera, capturing it for all time. We're not going to post his footage on here as it's too graphic but it's available on Youtube if you're interested.

6.32 (12.32) Lee Harvey Oswald drops the rifle on the sixth floor and begins to walk downstairs and is stopped by a police officer as they surge into the building. But after a moment the cop lets him go and he walks out of the depository. He will kill once more before the day is over.

6.30 (12.30) Kennedy's motorcade turns left onto Elm Street and drives directly in front of the Texas Schoolbook depository. The shots that will change history ring out. Today in 2013 the city's bell toll and a male choir begins a version of America the Beautiful.

6.27 (12.27) Mike Rawlings, the Mayor of Dallas is speaking now, offering the city's condolences to Kennedy's family and pays tribute to "an idealist without illusions who helped build a more just and equal world".

In a few minutes, at 12.30, there will be a moment of silence to match the moment of the first shot.

6.20 (12.20) Kennedy's motorcade is heading towards Dealey Plaza. Have a look at how the area has changed since then on our before and after slides.

5.52 (11.52) Meanwhile, back in 1963, the Kennedys have landed in Dallas. They get off the plane at 18.10 in the video, prompting the local television host to muse: "I can see his suntan all the way from here." They then greet Texas Governor John Connally, who would also be hit during the assassination.

5.50 (11.50) Our man Philip Sherwell is on the ground in Dallas, where the city is preparing to commemorate the dark day it was hosted 50 years ago.

The 5,000 guests who were awarded tickets in a lottery are gathering on the grassy lawn in the centre of Dealey Plaza. Big screens are playing footage from Kennedy’s years, evoking that Camelot era, and the Stars and Stripes is flying at half-mast – as they are across the country.

For many, that window on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository irresistible draws their eye. It’s from there that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal bullets (unless you are a conspiracy theorist, of course) and it seems to loom over the plaza today.

“I look up there and just think ‘what if’, what if history could be tweaked, if there was just some small change in the course of events that day,” says Carol Chazdon, a business consultant who was 12 when her teacher tearfully told the class that the president had been shot.

4.55 (10.55) Around this time the presidential motorcade led JFK and Jackie through the streets of Fort Worth en route to Carswell Air Force Base, where Air Force One was waiting to fly them on to Dallas.

4.50 (10.50) Billions of words have been written about JFK in the fifty years since his death. But among the most moving are the 1,169 words written by Jimmy Breslin, the Newsweek columnist, about his funeral. The column isn't even really about but about the "a working man who earns $3.01 an hour and said it was an honour to dig his grave".

Clifton Pollard was pretty sure he was going to be working on Sunday, so when he woke up at 9 a.m., in his three-room apartment on Corcoran Street, he put on khaki overalls before going into the kitchen for breakfast. His wife, Hettie, made bacon and eggs for him. Pollard was in the middle of eating them when he received the phone call he had been expecting.

It was from Mazo Kawalchik, who is the foreman of the gravediggers at Arlington National Cemetery, which is where Pollard works for a living. "Polly, could you please be here by eleven o'clock this morning?" Kawalchik asked. "I guess you know what it's for." Pollard did. He hung up the phone, finished breakfast, and left his apartment so he could spend Sunday digging a grave for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

4.40 (10.40) Proof of JFK's swag: he collaborated with DC Comics on a Superman comic book that was scheduled to run in April 1964. After his assassination, the comic book was pulled but then published in July 1964 as a tribute.

4.25 (10.25) No such confusion in Downing Street, where David Cameron, who was born three years after the shooting, has released this statement:

Fifty years ago John F Kennedy lost his life – and the world lost an inspiration. Wherever you go in the world today, the three letters – JFK - are instantly recognisable. They summon up the very best of politics: energy, optimism, hope – the belief that a nation united can achieve almost anything.

It was these ideals which came to define the Kennedy Presidency. He demanded that his country rise to the challenges of its time – and the people responded in kind. Although, his Presidency was tragically cut short, its legacy was felt long after. Civil rights, a man on the moon: both achieved after his death – but only possible because of the leadership shown during his life.

4.20 (10.20) He has probably the most famous set of initials in history but there is still a bit of confusion out there about what JFK means.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Katie Greenwood - who is JFK and is he died?&lt;/noframe&gt;

4.15 (10.15) The Secret Service won't discuss whether the 50th anniversary has led to a spike in threats against the current president. But it's interesting to note that Obama has no scheduled events outside the White House today and will being staying within the ring of steel that has been so vigilantly maintained since 1963.

3.55 (9.55) Kennedy's now finished his speech at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and its president, Raymond Buck, presents him with a cowboy hat and a pair of rattlesnake boots. Perhaps a little petulantly, JFK refuses to put on the hat but tells the laughing crowd: "I'll put it on in the White House on Monday, if you come up there you'll have a chance to see it there."

3.40 (9.40) They were both young Democrat presidents with telegenic families elected on a wave of national optimism. But there's no way around it: JFK was way more popular than Obama. Below is a chart from Gallup showing the two presidents' approval ratings (JFK in dark green).

Here's the comparison in numbers from Gallup, accepting that JFK served a little less than three years while Obama is going into his fifth year in office.

Obama average: 49% Kennedy average: 70%

Obama high point: 69% in January 2009 Kennedy high point: 81% in April 1961

On the day Kennedy was killed he was at 58% approval rating - at the same time in Obama's first term he was at 43%.

3.15 (9.15) Having finished his speech in the parking lot, Kennedy's motorcade rolled on to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where a large crowd was waiting for him. Here's the footage, with Kennedy's address beginning about 10 minutes in.

3.00 (9.00) What is it about Kennedy that means 50 years later we are still talking about him? Our US editor, Peter Foster, argues that his death was widely viewed as a turning point in American public life, when ordered optimism collapsed into the chaos of social unrest and national uncertainty

It was as if, for a terrifying moment, the clock had stopped on the American dream. Life was never quite the same again, says the myth - after JFK came the quagmire of Vietnam, the riots of the 1960s and a general breakdown of trust in government that has never been recovered.

Of course the world was never actually that simple – as the subsequent unpicking of JFK's character and record testifies – but it was presented that way, and thanks to the assassination, that is how it became fixed in America's collective consciousness.

2.50 (8.50) So step back in time with us again to the morning of November 22, 1963. Kennedy leaves his hotel to find an cheering crowd waiting for him. Despite his busy schedule he stops and gives an impromptu address that will be remembered as "the Parking Lot speech".

2.41 (8.41) By the way, flags are at half-mast here in Washington and at government buildings across the US and American embassies around the world after a presidential proclamation issued by Barack Obama last night.

Here's an excerpt of the official proclamation the White House released last night.

A half century ago, America mourned the loss of an extraordinary public servant. With broad vision and soaring but sober idealism, President John F Kennedy had called a generation to service and summoned a Nation to greatness. Today, we honor his memory and celebrate his enduring imprint on American history.

2.32 (8.32) Congressman Joe Kennedy III, the 33-year-old grandson of Bobby Kennedy and the only member of the clan in elected politics, just released this statement.

From conservation to education to social justice, President Kennedy advocated for a citizenry that cared for, invested, and engaged in the country they were lucky to call home. He believed fiercely that our American values must be earned and nurtured so that they would not fade away.

He challenged all of us to achieve a better and bigger future for our country: where man would walk on the moon; where individuals with disabilities could enjoy opportunity, not indifference; where skin color would not disqualify you from democracy or basic human decency; and where hundreds of citizen ambassadors across the globe could sow the seeds of peace.

We'll have more on JK III, as he's known, later in the day.

2.20 (8.20) Joseph Kennedy Sr, JFK's father and the patriarch of the Kennedy clan, was Franklin Roosevelt's ambassador to London. JFK lived in Britain briefly in 1938, watching as Neville Chamberlain's government appeased the Nazis and later wrote a book on the subject, Why England Slept.

2.10 (8.10) Kennedy, a youthful president during an old Cold War, was beloved not just in the United States but around the world and we're expecting tributes in lots of different countries today.

Here's Matthew Barzun, the US ambassador to London, paying tribute at the memorial in Runnymede, Berkshire. More on the British shrine to JFK here.

2.02 (8.02) So to set the scene: at this moment in 1963 John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy are in Fort Worth, Texas. The Massachusetts liberal has no great love for the Lone Star State, where he won narrowly in 1960 and which is home to his grudge-nursing vice-president, Lyndon Johnson.

But he knows its importance as he begins to think about re-election in November 1964 and the trip is designed to raise funds and improve relations with local Democrats politicians. He day begins in Fort Worth before moving on to the main event: a parade through the streets of Dallas.

Meanwhile, a small thin man named Lee Harvey Oswald is riding to work at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, clutching a package he says contains curtain rods.

2pm London (8am Dallas): Good morning and welcome to our live coverage as America remembers the day that changed everything. Fifty years ago today the hopeful idealism of the John F Kennedy's Camelot-era ended with the crack of an assassin's rifle.

We're going to be bringing you the scenes of mourning and remembrance from around the world as people gather to pay tribute. But we're also going to do our best to recreate the day in real-time, giving you a sense of a sunny day in Dallas turned to a moment of historic tragedy.